Pentagon's 'deploy-or-be-removed' policy takes effect

The Pentagon on Friday released new policy guidance on retention of non-deployable service members, which could result in nearly 300,000 soldiers being kicked out of the military.

The new directive seeks to improve overall readiness and lethality of forces by reducing the number of service members who cannot be deployed overseas, according to Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Robert Wilkie, who testified before Congress on Wednesday.

"On any given day, about 13 to 14 percent of the force is medically unable to deploy -- that comes out to be around 286,000 service members," Wilkie told the Senate Armed Services Committee's personnel subcommittee on Wednesday.